Well, the law of the land established three branches of government. one to make the laws, one to enforce them, and one to interpret them. The law of the land also established which powers were vested in the Federal government and which were vested in the states. And each of the states followed suit.

Somewhere in the Utah state code there is apparently something that defines theft of the duffel bag as a rather minor misdemeanor and describes the possible range of punishments. There are also laws against assault, pointing or shooting a gun without justification as defined in the law, making someone lie on the ground....

And in Utah law it is specified how miscreants are to be charged and tried and by whom. The responsibility for determining guilt, passing sentence, and executing the sentence is assigned to elements of the judicial branch, not the police department or citizens not seated on a jury.

From what we have read, the two guys with the guns are entering into that process and may in fact be subject to "old school punishment". So will the duffel bag thief.

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i dont need a cop to fight my battles and i sure aint gunna wait for or depend on one when it all hits the fan...oh please dont stab me until i call the polce and wait 10 minutes for them to show up!

Well, yeah, the courts have ruled that you are responsible for your own protection.

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NO THANKS NOT ME...better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6!

These guys will most probably be judged, but since they didn't actually shoot anyone, it may be by a jury of eight people.

What will happen remains to be seen. Possibilities include permanent loss of gun rights, imprisonment...and it seems likely that their expenses are already starting to mount up big time.

Is that wrong? The Utah legislature has defined what constitutes a crime. There is apparently probable cause to charge these fellows with criminal conduct. Now the wheels of justice will grind, with whatever outcome yet to be determined.

These guys exercised incredibly poor judgment, and they may have committed crimes--that's up to the court system that has been operating in Utah for a little over a century.

But they may well have been lucky. They might have murdered the guy by using deadly force to protect property; they might have shot each other; they could haver been gunned down by police officers trying to protect an unarmed man on the ground against a couple of gunmen in a most unfortunate turn of events.